CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2015 49
In this club it’s the boat, not you, which is the member.
And she has to be a Little Ship, one of the brave fleet which
rescued our soldiers from Dunkirk
STORY BY PETER WILLIS
peculiarly our own. With much history recorded – tales
of heroism, endurance, self-sacrifice – and a few myths,
too, including the persistent belief that the Little Ships
were all motor-cruisers from the upper Thames, piloted
across the Channel by their enthusiastic owners. Quite a
lot were, and there are instances of such boats crossing
the Channel under the command of their owners, but –
as the register of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships
records, and as its members demonstrate every five years,
an astonishing variety of vessels made up the hastily-
assembled flotilla that went to the rescue.
One fact though is inescapable. Inevitable human
frailty means that for the first time, this year’s Return
will almost certainly be bereft of the presence of
dignified, medal-bedecked elderly veterans of the
evacuation. Not for the first time, the reflection arises
that it is the boats themselves, cared-for, restored, with
THE LITTLE SHIPS
PREPARE TO
REVISIT DUNKIRK
their participation documented, that are the durable
bearers of the spirit of this particular piece of history.
And, as the decades go by, it seems that more of these
historic vessels are rediscovered and restored. In each of
the ADLS’s five-yearly commemorative Returns to
Dunkirk, there are a few new names.
So it is this year – and furthermore, the number of
vessels registered to take part suggests that if they all turn
up (which admittedly is unlikely) this could be one of the
largest of the Returns so far.
It’s also likely to be one of the most visible. Typically
the fleet departs for Dunkirk from Ramsgate Harbour at
some ungodly hour of the morning – as indeed it will do
again this year, away by about 7.30am – and even so a
goodly crowd turns out to cheer it on its way. This year,
however, the organisers have decided to stretch the event
out, and begin things the previous weekend, in London,
RAY LITTLE
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